Wide-nine has transformed Philadelphia Eagles' defense

View full sizeAssociated Press PhotoEagles defensive end Jason Babin has benefited from the wide-nine defense. Each of his two Pro Bowl seasons were under defensive line coach Jim Washburn â a champion of the concept.

PHILADELPHIA — Football players speak a complicated language — a shotgun marriage of numbers and words.

So when Philadelphia Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn brought his “wide nine” defense to first-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and head coach Andy Reid last season it’s doubtful many fans knew what the term meant.

The term was thrown around a lot last year. When the Eagles were repeatedly gashed for big gains up the middle, the wide-nine and its big gaps were the culprit. When Jason Babin was chasing the sack title, the wide-nine and its freedom were the catalyst. When the Eagles ceased a decade of devaluing the linebacker position and drafted Mychal Kendricks in the second round after trading for two-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans, the wide-nine was the reason.

Basically, the wide-nine is a defensive formation that places maximum value on penetration from defensive linemen. To do this, the defensive ends are stretched out further along the line of scrimmage to create harder angles for offensive tackles to block them.

However, that widening of the defensive line’s splits — the areas between players — puts more pressure and gap responsibility on defensive tackles and linebackers in addition to tackling responsibility on the safeties.

The term nine refers to a numbering system to determine positioning.

View full sizeGraphic by Matt ChandoA graphic illustration of the wide-nine defense.

“(Defensive linemen) are coming off the ball and (Washburn) talks about rushing, crushing and closing,” Castillo said. “They’re not just pass rushing. There’s the rush and getting upfield. Crush means that if somebody tries to block them that they’re going to squeeze that block down. They are playing the run. Close means that nobody blocks them and they’re going to squeeze. That’s basically what we’ve been doing, and we want to see them continue.”

There’s certainly plusses to the scheme. The Eagles led the league in sacks last season with 51, partially because the alignments put pass-rushers in the best possible position to get after the quarterback. That’s why someone like Jason Babin, who was third in the NFL in sacks last season with 18, has made the Pro Bowl in both seasons while playing under Washburn and the wide-nine (with Tennessee in 2010 and last season).

The system can turn an ordinary defensive lineman like Babin or Phillip Hunt or Darryl Tapp into a demon by ensuring that rushing the quarterback is top priority and by better positioning them with wider alignments.

“There’s a certain technique to it,” the second-year defensive end said. “It’s not doing whatever you want to do. You have to play the techniques (Washburn) wants. It’s a great scheme we’ve developed that allows us to make plays.”

“For the inside tackles, everything depends on the (game) situation,” rookie defensive tackle and first-round pickFletcher Cox said. “If it’s third and long, you’re going to get wider and rush the quarterback, but you also need to get in the quarterback’s face up the middle. It’s a great system.”

Washburn was brought in to run his wide-nine scheme and Castillo was subsequently named defensive coordinator last offseason. Reid said the team would not have done the latter if they couldn’t have executed the former, which many considered odd.

Typically a defensive coordinator is given the opportunity to choose his own staff or at least sign off on them. There was even speculation that the Eagles couldn’t find a natural defensive coordinator last offseason because of Washburn and the wide-nine’s presence and therefore had to settle on promoting Castillo from offensive line coach — an odd choice.

Yet the Eagles implemented the new system in a lockout-shortened offseason and the early results weren’t pretty. The team averaged 23.5 points per game allowed and surrendered five fourth-quarter leads in the first 12 games. The exact situation the wide-nine was designed for, protecting a lead against a pass-first offense by relentlessly rushing the quarterback, failed.

But in the last four games, albeit against teams with a 27-37 combined record, the defense allowed just 11.5 points per game.

“The second year in the wide-nine will be big for us,” defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins said. “We can look at last year’s film and we can learn from that. We’ve been through a season with it, so we’re a lot more comfortable with everything.

“Last year before the season we were watching film from other teams with people that weren’t even still in the league in order to understand the scheme.”

It’s tough to get a defensive lineman to say a bad word about the wide-nine because it frees them up to get more penetration and make more plays. The flip side of that is it leaves linebackers to sometimes cover two gaps.

Last year, that meant the Eagles undersized linebacking corps was getting gashed.

“It’s not a huge adjustment; the guys are a little wider, but it’s still a 4-3 (defense),” said Ryans, who was acquired in trade with Houston where he made two Pro Bowls before rupturing his Achilles tendon in 2010 and spent 2011 rounding back into form. “It’s just wider so they can get a good angle on the tackle and set a wider edge.

“It’s not hard to play behind. You just see the different ways people try to attack you and it’s kind of the same way with certain runs. You have to understand how they’re trying to attack you and you have to play to what you’re assigned.”

Ryans might be too kind in his latter assessment. The wide edge and bigger spaces in between defensive ends and tackles means more responsibility falls on the linebackers in run defense.

And the Eagles are banking on a second-round pick, a former Pro Bowler coming off an Achilles tendon injury and a pair of third-year question marks at safety — strong safety Nate Allen and free safety Kurt Coleman — to pick up that slack. In theory, that should enable the defensive line to make big plays and create turnovers.